Feature Stories
Shoot from the Hip: A few choice reasons to rethink the camera phone.
by Sondra Sneed
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"There are interesting and surprising reactions from people who see the pictures that have been taken from some of these new phones," says Baldridge. "People are either surprised by the image quality or discouraged by it." If compared to an SLR, (a camera with interchangeable lenses), the digital quality and interface might seem minimal at best. But when one compares her images like the ones entitled, "New York by Camera Phone", published on her website
http://www.aimeebaldridge.com, to their own camera phone shots, people are quite amazed. "Most consumers," she explains, "have expectations that are about two years behind what the market can offer them today." Baldridge has also reported findings in American Photo magazine which mobile phones top the list from the camera component. Samsung and Nokia models headed up the shortlist.
Nokia's N96 shared top billing with Sony Ericsson's C902 in the "Editor's Choice: Camera Cellphone of the Year" review. Nokia's N96 has a Carl Zeiss lens, a roomy LCD screen, and a digital sensor that reduces camera noise, (pixilation in the shadows), for low-light shooting. The N96 also has a flash, and captures movies in MPEG-4 format and uses a video-lamp-like LED. It has GPS tagging and is WiFi-capable, which means images "go" anywhere you want them to without using a cellular plan. The only setback is an $800 price tag.
American Photo's co-winner, Sony Ericsson's C902 however, is $500 and has some qualities that Baldridge really appreciates, like the interface. "It's one thing to have complicated controls on a camera, and another to have them on your phone. No one really wants to fumble around with controls on a phone. The C902, when turned on its side, actually looks and feels like a digital camera." She refers to the lens cover, which slides open to engage the camera; but she also says in her review, "Its lens focuses using face-detection technology, finding and following a moving face in the frame."
An auto focusing lens that follows a moving face symbolizes what has become the most interesting and unique aspect of shooting with a camera phone; it gives birth to a new style genre. To take a picture with the camera on your phone she says, one has to be really close to the subject. The photographer has to be in the subject's "intimate space", which makes the camera a player in the action. But precisely because of that, there is room for improvement on these cameras.
The author/photographer has two complaints about the new high-quality camera phones and both are about speed. Shutter lag, (the time it takes for the camera to take the picture once the button is pushed), along with slow shutter speeds can cause blur. Which while a bit annoying, she explains, can at least be anticipated and overcome with practice. However, slow processing speed keeps the photographer waiting to take the next picture for seconds too long and therefore loses the momentum of the action in a scene. And that can mean a lot of missed shots, and annoyed subjects. But regarding the pictures that one manages to capture on the phone, what does the future hold for them?
If you are planning to print the pictures, there are some cameras that will perform better than others.
Popular Photography magazine will publish the results of a field test where Baldridge looks at the printing results of noted Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson models, all with 5-megapixel file capture capacity, which is big enough for a decent 8x10 photograph. So far, the Nokia N82 is at the top with Sony Ericsson's K850i Cybershot is a very close second. Not all models had completed testing at the time of this story so you might look for the outcome on http://www.popphoto.com or find the printed version of the magazine for the final review in the October issue.
But printing the pictures may not be the ultimate intention for taking them.
Adobe Photoshop has been the professional photographer's darkroom and special effects tool for nearly two decades now and the software giant is plunging into new territory by offering the average consumer free editing tools and gallery storage on the web.
Photoshop.com is a new player in the photo-sharing market, and they've gone a step further to add a mobile component calling it Photoshop.com Mobile.
In late September 2008, they have made available a downloadable beta version for Windows Mobile users. The mobile app will allow immediate picture uploads from the phone to the web gallery. Plans to make the app available to other phones are in the works and they are currently using ShoZu to shuttle pictures from phone models like the Blackberry Pearl, and the Palm Treo and a few others to web galleries. Anyone who creates their own profile on the website is given two (2) Gigs of free space to upload photos and create albums. But professional versions with up to 20 Gigs of storage space will be the recurring revenue model.
And speaking of professional photographers; would they have any reason to watch for camera phone improvements?
"I take research shots in the field, and then send them to creative directors on my Sprint Treo, but I am looking into an iPhone for the future", says Kansas City-based, international advertising photographer Nick Vedros. Vedros' advertising clients range from Coca-Cola to Purina, and the only pictures he takes from a smartphone are the pre-shoot reference shots used when creating print ads. It has essentially replaced the Polaroid for pre-production work. A commercial photographer at this level, works the same as corporate executives; it's the communication network that has the most value.
According to Vedros and Associates' Producer, Mike Lee, fielding calls and emails till 10:30 at night is what prompted the studio to use Sprint smartphones for their in-house network.
Since Apple has cornered the creative market however, it seems only reasonable for a professional photography studio to consider the iPhone for its in-house enterprise mobile needs. However the iPhone doesn't rank in Baldridge's reviews as a top camera phone because it lacks the kind of technical specs that would be important for a high quality digital image.
"I think people like the iPhone as a camera phone because of the interface," she said. "It's not like any of them actually print the pictures, so as long as they look great on the screen, and are easy to take, people with a casual need don't care about the lens or resolution of the captured picture."
How the phone ultimately interfaces with the computer is certainly where there is more room for improvement across the board and why the iPhone for MAC users might still be the camera phone of choice.